The Riddle
by Miss Pookamonga
Summary: UPDATE: Please read...
1. Prologue: The Visitation

_Dear Readers, _

_This is a fic I've been thinking about writing for awhile. It started as a general SGA fic, but then "Adrift" and "Lifeline" happened, and I decided I needed to find a way to get Elizabeth back. I had two ideas floating around in my head: one involving a psychic 7-year-old girl who knew how to get Elizabeth back, and one involving the team finding Elizabeth--only, they didn't know it was her, because she was in the body of a teenage girl. I wasn't sure which one to go with, and then, lo and behold, "This Mortal Coil" happened. And I got another idea and decided to tweak my original ones. Then, I was listening to the song "Twenty-Four" by Switchfoot, and realized how perfect it was for my idea. So goes the story of the birth of this fic. I hope you enjoy how this first part finally turned out, and, as always, I love and appreciate reviews. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all!_

_Best Regards from a Bookworm (and SGA fan),_

_Miss Pookamonga ;-P_

_PS: If you could, please keep me in your thoughts and prayers. Thank you and God Bless._

_A/N: WARNING--THIS STORY WILL EVENTUALLY CONTAIN SITUTATIONS OF TORTURE AND EXTREME PERIL INVOLVING YOUNG CHILDREN. Just for your advisement. _

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_**"The future is predetermined by the character of those who shape it."--Davos, SGA: 'The Seer'** _

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**Prologue:**** The Visitation**

It was the second night that the woman had come to her. The first time she had only seen her from afar, standing on that golden cloud somewhere across the sea, glowing like an angel. But tonight, she was closer. Much closer. Tonight she sat in the little pink chair by her drawing table, and she was holding Alice comfortably in her lap.

She wasn't scared of the woman.

Maybe she should've been, but the woman wasn't a stranger to her. True, she had only seen her once before, but she didn't feel at all like she needed to be afraid. Or like the woman was a threat. In fact, the woman's presence radiated a sense of comfort to her that she only felt when she was with family. The woman sat there, looking gently at her with soft grey eyes, a motherly smile on her lips. She didn't look scary. She looked kind. Like someone she'd want to run to if she was scared, not run away from.

"Madison."

Madison sat up in bed upon hearing the woman call her name. She rubbed her eyes in confusion and squinted at the beautiful figure before her. "How do you know my name?" she asked in a tiny voice.

The woman's smile widened a little, but it didn't lose its serenity. "I know your uncle, for a start," she answered in a soothing voice, looking straight into the little girl's eyes.

"Uncle Mer?" Madison piped up, beaming. She liked her Uncle Mer, for all his oddities.

The woman nodded. "Yes. I used to work with him."

"Oh, in outer space?" Madison loved hearing about how her Uncle Mer worked in some magical city that floated on the sea, somewhere out there in what he called the Pegasus Galaxy. Listening to stories about his job was like watching Star Wars with her daddy or having her mommy read about Narnia.

"Yes, in outer space," the woman chuckled. "He's a very good friend of mine."

"Do you know the man with the funny hair?" Madison continued, shifting forward excitedly in her bed. If this woman really worked with her Uncle Mer, then she was bound to be quite interesting and probably as nice as all the people in that city, whatever-it-was-called.

The woman laughed again, her smile reaching from ear to ear now. "Yes, yes, I know him too. He's also a very good friend of mine. His name is John, do you remember?"

The name lit a spark of recognition in the little girl's mind and she nodded vigorously. "Yeah. Now I do. And the big guy who came here with him is Ronon."

The woman nodded again. "That's right."

"They saved my mommy," remarked Madison intensely, leaning toward the woman.

"Yes, I know," answered the woman with another soft smile. "They and your Uncle Mer are very brave men."

"Uh-huh," agreed Madison happily, a grin breaking out on her rosy little face. "Uncle Mer doesn't think he's very brave, but I think he is. He's just weird, that's all."

The woman bit her lip, trying to restrain herself from laughing loudly. "Well, he does have his peculiarities, but he _is _a very brave man, like you say."

Madison nodded again and brought her knees up to her chin. She allowed a few seconds of silence to pass between the two of them before blurting out another question.

"Who are you?"

The woman wasn't startled by the spontaneity of the inquiry. Children were spontaneous when speaking, and she'd been expecting the question to come up sooner or later anyway.

She took a deep breath while staring absent-mindedly at the white stuffed rabbit in her hands that the little girl called "Alice." Then, she looked up at the innocent face, cocked slightly to the side, curiosity gleaming in her small blue eyes. She wished that she didn't have to do this—not to one so young, so pure, so full of life. But, then again, that was why it had to be her, why it had to be this little girl who would carry the responsibility she was about to have bestowed upon her. The woman hadn't chosen Madison; Madison had been chosen for her, and if there was a divine order, then all would come to pass as it should, regardless of her resistance.

Trying as hard as possible not to convey any detectable discomfort or sadness through her voice, the woman spoke. "My name is Elizabeth. Elizabeth Alice Weir. I used to be the lea—I used to be your Uncle Mer's boss, of sorts."

Madison rocked forward onto her knees, so that she was kneeling on top of the folds of her blanket. She stared at the woman's face for a minute, studying it carefully, especially her eyes. There was something that had changed about them—they were no longer glowing with just a soft kindness. It was still there, but there was something else there, clouding it—something that seemed very dark and sad and frightening. Madison didn't like it. It made her stomach and her heart feel funny.

"Are you sad, Elizabeth?" she asked sweetly, concern in her voice.

Elizabeth opened her mouth to say no, but then she stopped herself. She couldn't lie to this little girl. It wouldn't be right.

"Yes. Yes, I'm sad, Madison," she finally got out after swallowing a few times. The emotions were rushing back at her again, like a tidal wave tumbling toward her, threatening to drown her in its icy waters.

Without needing any other incentive, Madison slipped down off the bed, walked over to Elizabeth, and wrapped her little arms tightly around the woman's waist. She liked Elizabeth. She didn't want her to be sad.

"Don't be sad," Madison whispered. "Why are you sad?"

At the sudden gesture, the tears Elizabeth realized she was choking back broke through and began streaming down her face. "I-I—it's very hard to explain, Madison," she whispered shakily.

Madison leaned away from her hug to climb onto Elizabeth's lap, and then resumed hugging the crying woman again, leaning her golden-haired head against Elizabeth's arm. "You can tell me," she whispered softly. "Mommy says that if you're sad it's good to talk about it, and then you won't feel sad anymore. I don't want you to be sad."

Elizabeth sniffed and smiled a little at the girl's words. "All right. But it might make you sad too. And it's a little scary."

The girl sat up straight and looked Elizabeth firmly in the eye. Her gaze was so intense that Elizabeth nearly jolted in shock. "I'm brave," Madison whispered fiercely, her face rigid with seriousness.

Elizabeth stared back at that little face for a few seconds, Madison's words ringing eerily through the still silence of the night air. She was startled by how mature the girl suddenly looked in the twilight. Finally, she took another deep breath and nodded. "I know you are," she answered softly. "I know you are."

"Then tell me," Madison said, less severely this time.

Elizabeth sighed. "A few months ago, I almost died in an explosion in Atlantis, the city where your Uncle Mer works. He was able to save me by turning on these little alien machines inside my body that helped me get better. Now, Atlantis can fly like a ship through outer space, even though it's still a city. Right when I got better, we were still flying in outer space, because we had to leave our planet so these bad aliens couldn't destroy us. But we were losing power, which meant we either needed to land on another planet or get more power."

"Like a giant battery?" asked Madison quietly.

"Yes, like a giant battery," Elizabeth answered. "Now, your Uncle Mer found a planet on his computer that had a lot of these giant battery things, and he thought we could go there and get some. But it turns out that this planet was the home of another group of bad aliens, who are made of the same little machines that are in my body."

"Did the little machines make you bad?" asked Madison suddenly, tensing in fear for the first time that night.

Elizabeth patted the little girl's hair reassuringly and shook her head. "No."

"Oh, good."

Elizabeth allowed a tiny grin to curl around her lips before continuing. "Now, we had to go to this planet and steal some of these 'batteries' from the aliens. John, your Uncle Mer, Ronon, and I went there in one of our little ships. Because I had some of the little machines in me, I knew where everything was in the aliens' big city, so I told John and Ronon where to go. But then your Uncle Mer got an idea. He thought we could get into the big computer that the bad aliens had and change the program that made them bad, so that they wouldn't be bad anymore. It seemed like a good idea at the time. So, your uncle and I had to help John and Ronon change the program, but then the bad aliens caught us. I tried to stop them, because I could kind of do that, with the little machines inside of me, but it wasn't enough. The bad aliens captured me. They almost got your uncle, John, and Ronon, but I told them to get away—" her sentence plummeted into a painful sob.

A heavy silence dropped like a deadweight onto the two for a few moments, broken only by the sounds of Elizabeth's sobs and Madison's quiet comforting words.

"It's okay," whispered Madison tenderly, hugging Elizabeth even tighter.

Elizabeth sniffed and wiped her eyes, immensely grateful for the support of the little girl resting in her lap. She took another deep, but shaky breath and then continued. "I was a prisoner for a few months, but even then, I tried to use the little machines in me to help make some of the bad aliens be good aliens. The leader of the bad aliens finally found out and got very angry. He—did something to me very, very hurtful."

"Did he try to kill you?" Madison asked softly, suddenly feeling tears forming at the back of her eyes.

Elizabeth tried to speak, but nothing would come out through the flood of tears. She closed her mouth and just nodded.

"I'm sorry," Madison whispered soothingly. "But you're alive now."

Elizabeth choked on another sob. "But, you see, Madison, that's the problem." Madison looked up at the woman quizzically. "Your Uncle Mer and my friends don't know that I am alive. They think I'm dead. And I can't tell them that I am alive like I can tell you."

Madison frowned, feeling a few hot tears sliding down her face. "Why not?" she croaked.

"It's complicated, Madison," answered Elizabeth sorrowfully. "I wish I could explain that to you too, but you wouldn't understand now. Maybe later, but not now."

"Do I have to wait until I'm grown-up?"

Elizabeth shook her head. "I don't know, Madison, I don't know. All I know is that I need your help."

A sudden thread of something—she wasn't quite sure what—just then passed through Madison's mind, and she suddenly understood. "You want me to tell them."

Elizabeth paused for a moment, considering whether she should tell Madison everything just then. No, she decided; it was too much. The girl would have to learn later, along the way—it would be painful (and that made Elizabeth feel a pang of guilt stabbing at her), but it would be better that way. "Yes," she finally whispered, nodding slowly. "Yes, that's what I need you to do."

Another silence spread itself out, encompassing them and their thoughts. Madison closed her eyes and leaned her head against Elizabeth's stomach, considering what the crying woman had told her. She knew she had to help her; if she didn't, Elizabeth would never be happy again. And that made Madison sad. She wanted to help; she _needed_ to help. She was brave. She could tell them that Elizabeth was alive, she could tell them that Elizabeth needed them. And it was then and there that the little girl decided she would help Dr. Elizabeth Weir, no matter what happened, until she was happy again.

Opening her eyes and looking intently up at the woman's watery grey eyes with her firm blue ones, Madison finally spoke, in a voice that sounded so much greater than her whole entire being.

"I'll help you, Elizabeth."

And then, in a flash of golden light, everything disappeared into blindness, until Madison awoke to find herself in her bed staring at sunlight, clutching Alice tightly to her chest.


	2. The Obligatory Author's Note

**_Author's Note_**

_Dear Readers,_

_Yes, I understand how you all hate these things--but I had to do it for this story. I regret to say that I won't be continuing this--well, at least, as is, anyway. What I had planned for this story pretty much fell apart after season 5 started, so since then, I've been racking my brain for ways to make this work. I HAVE found a solution, however, so do not fear, oh faithful ones. What is going to happen is this: elements that I had planned for this story are going to show up in my new fic "The Orpheus Effect" (you can find the link in my profile) AND in its sequel whose title is yet to be determined (and which is yet to be written). (I'm sorry to say that Madison probably won't show up in "Orpheus", but she will without a doubt be in the sequel. And Liz...well, telling you anything about that would be major spoilerifico for "Orpheus" AND the sequel, so you'll just have to go ahead and read them. HA. LOL). Now, I just started TOE, so don't be disappointed if you read the first installment and are left going "WTF?!" after it. Trust me, it'll all tie in perfectly ;-) It might be awhile 'till I get to the Liz part, though, just so you know that. But it WILL be in there. Okay, I'll shut up now with the spoilers. Just read (and review, duh), please, and you'll be on track. Thanks again for putting up with this and for reading and reviewing the original prologue. Toodles...mwah...you all get cookies..._

_Best regards from a Bookworm (and SAVE SGA! advocate),_

_Miss Pookamonga ;-P (and her lovely muses: Suzy T. Blue, Sally Brown, Sunny Baudelaire, CAPTAIN Jack Sparrow, Hugh Laurie, Dr. Rodney McKay, and Kenneth Branagh--whose awesomeness I hope outshines Tom Cruise's crappiness in _Valkyrie_)_

_PS: Oh, and Prince Caspian, you always belonged to me. Get up yonder with ye olde fellow muses._

_PC: NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!! _


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